100K miles on Comptech SC - Is this a first?
Registered User
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 5,423
Likes: 1
From: Seattle, WA
I change mine at around 7500 or 8000 miles with Mobil 1 synthetic. I'm in the middle of turbo'ing mine now so I'll most likely start changing at 4000-5000 mile intervals.
My comment earlier was not to knock his car - the fact that he beats the daylights out of the car and it lasted as long as it did is tremendous. But yes, the motor finally gave out. The compression levels got really low and I believe he either replaced the motor or is still in the process of replacing it. I asked him if he would be putting the supercharger on the new motor and I got a quick "hell yes!" from him
My comment earlier was not to knock his car - the fact that he beats the daylights out of the car and it lasted as long as it did is tremendous. But yes, the motor finally gave out. The compression levels got really low and I believe he either replaced the motor or is still in the process of replacing it. I asked him if he would be putting the supercharger on the new motor and I got a quick "hell yes!" from him
But props to him for keeping it so long.
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Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 7,087
Likes: 2
From: Dry Branch
Originally Posted by afwfjustin,Sep 23 2006, 11:23 PM
I change mine at around 7500 or 8000 miles with Mobil 1 synthetic. I'm in the middle of turbo'ing mine now so I'll most likely start changing at 4000-5000 mile intervals.
My comment earlier was not to knock his car - the fact that he beats the daylights out of the car and it lasted as long as it did is tremendous. But yes, the motor finally gave out. The compression levels got really low and I believe he either replaced the motor or is still in the process of replacing it. I asked him if he would be putting the supercharger on the new motor and I got a quick "hell yes!" from him
My comment earlier was not to knock his car - the fact that he beats the daylights out of the car and it lasted as long as it did is tremendous. But yes, the motor finally gave out. The compression levels got really low and I believe he either replaced the motor or is still in the process of replacing it. I asked him if he would be putting the supercharger on the new motor and I got a quick "hell yes!" from him
Thread Starter
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Joined: May 2001
Posts: 2,121
Likes: 3
From: Indian Land SC
I've been meaning to post this for a while but have been really busy. I've not kept up with this thread so there may be many questions I'm not answering here so I'll try to review this again in a day or two. But for now, at least the basic story...
One day my car was running as usual, and the next I noticed a little extra noise, almost like an after-market exhaust or a little more intake growl. I thought "Hmm, if I had an exhaust leak I would expect a different noise" so I thought maybe the air box cover had come off. Nope.
Later in the day I had to drive to meet my wife for dinner (Friday after work) and it was so friggin hot I put the top up. Now the noise was definitely louder and definitely NOT an exhaust or intake noise. I thought "Hmm, is this what a rod knock or bearing knock sounds like?". On the way to dinner (12 miles) it got noticeably louder and was accompanied by a vibration. The engine still had decent power but I knew the noise/vibration was something serious, and Friday night after work is not exactly the best time to start hunting for repair shops. My wife and I were scheduled to be leaving the country the next week for our 25th Wedding anniversary trip to Europe so while I would have liked to take it apart myself I just didn't have the time. If I got a shop to do it, hopefully most of the work would be done while I was away, making it a little easier to deal with.
I ended up talking to John Blake at Blake Automotive in Atlanta. He's a member of our local Atlanta Club, owns a Comptech SC S2000, and seemed like a decent guy who knew what he was doing. Several members had work done at his shop and were pleased with the results, so I drove the car over to John's place and left it for him to look at. It made the trip, but the noise continued to get worse with every mile. Mileage was 181,349.
John checked compression, finding what I already knew from checking it myself over the years, that #1 & #4 were on the low side but still functioning, and #2 was a little lower. But he also found that #3 was really low (like less than 120). And then there was the matter of oil pressure, which if I remember correctly was 6 psi at idle instead of the normal 60. Not good.
By this time I had reasearched a replacement used engine and found one with 58k for $3000. John did a little better, finding a 2003 motor with only 34k for the same price. I decided it was simpler, faster, and probably cheaper to just do an engine swap rather than try a rebuild. With bearing wear bad enough to bring the oil pressure down to 6 psi there's no telling what else could be wrong - crank, block, etc. I didn't even consider getting a new car, at least not now, though I'll probably be ready in 2008, hopefully when Honda makes some more model changes. So John started working on the swap and I went to Europe.
A few days after I returned John had completed the swap, including removing and re-installing the SC and my myriad of re-wiring hacks. He called me up on a Tuesday afternoon and said "I'm about to put oil in it and crank it up, why don't you head this way?" Nothing like confidence in your work, huh?
So I drove over to find that John had just finished a test drive and had the car on the rack for me to inspect, top and bottom, before turning it over to me. After the paperwork, I got in and drove it 240 miles to North Carlolina. Nothing like confidence inyour mechanic, eh?
So that's the story. The car runs great. I can't believe how much more low end and mid-range it has, I guess that's a result of getting my compression back. Starts quicker too, as if all it takes is one cylinder firing to get it running.
I do have one problem though - I'm 99% sure I've got the "timing chain tensioner noise". It's not bad, just a second or two on initial startup. I find it odd thay my '00 engine with 181k never had it, but this '03 with only 34k already does. Hmm. I wonder if anyone has taken a poll of which model years have had the problem?
.
One day my car was running as usual, and the next I noticed a little extra noise, almost like an after-market exhaust or a little more intake growl. I thought "Hmm, if I had an exhaust leak I would expect a different noise" so I thought maybe the air box cover had come off. Nope.
Later in the day I had to drive to meet my wife for dinner (Friday after work) and it was so friggin hot I put the top up. Now the noise was definitely louder and definitely NOT an exhaust or intake noise. I thought "Hmm, is this what a rod knock or bearing knock sounds like?". On the way to dinner (12 miles) it got noticeably louder and was accompanied by a vibration. The engine still had decent power but I knew the noise/vibration was something serious, and Friday night after work is not exactly the best time to start hunting for repair shops. My wife and I were scheduled to be leaving the country the next week for our 25th Wedding anniversary trip to Europe so while I would have liked to take it apart myself I just didn't have the time. If I got a shop to do it, hopefully most of the work would be done while I was away, making it a little easier to deal with.
I ended up talking to John Blake at Blake Automotive in Atlanta. He's a member of our local Atlanta Club, owns a Comptech SC S2000, and seemed like a decent guy who knew what he was doing. Several members had work done at his shop and were pleased with the results, so I drove the car over to John's place and left it for him to look at. It made the trip, but the noise continued to get worse with every mile. Mileage was 181,349.
John checked compression, finding what I already knew from checking it myself over the years, that #1 & #4 were on the low side but still functioning, and #2 was a little lower. But he also found that #3 was really low (like less than 120). And then there was the matter of oil pressure, which if I remember correctly was 6 psi at idle instead of the normal 60. Not good.
By this time I had reasearched a replacement used engine and found one with 58k for $3000. John did a little better, finding a 2003 motor with only 34k for the same price. I decided it was simpler, faster, and probably cheaper to just do an engine swap rather than try a rebuild. With bearing wear bad enough to bring the oil pressure down to 6 psi there's no telling what else could be wrong - crank, block, etc. I didn't even consider getting a new car, at least not now, though I'll probably be ready in 2008, hopefully when Honda makes some more model changes. So John started working on the swap and I went to Europe.
A few days after I returned John had completed the swap, including removing and re-installing the SC and my myriad of re-wiring hacks. He called me up on a Tuesday afternoon and said "I'm about to put oil in it and crank it up, why don't you head this way?" Nothing like confidence in your work, huh?
So I drove over to find that John had just finished a test drive and had the car on the rack for me to inspect, top and bottom, before turning it over to me. After the paperwork, I got in and drove it 240 miles to North Carlolina. Nothing like confidence inyour mechanic, eh?
So that's the story. The car runs great. I can't believe how much more low end and mid-range it has, I guess that's a result of getting my compression back. Starts quicker too, as if all it takes is one cylinder firing to get it running.
I do have one problem though - I'm 99% sure I've got the "timing chain tensioner noise". It's not bad, just a second or two on initial startup. I find it odd thay my '00 engine with 181k never had it, but this '03 with only 34k already does. Hmm. I wonder if anyone has taken a poll of which model years have had the problem?
.
